Insulation displacement contacts electrically contacting a conductor by piercing an insulation layer around the conductor are generally known in the art. The insulation displacement contact (“IDC”) has opposite blades each with a cutting edge. The cutting edges terminate into a contact slot defined between the blades.
European Patent Application No. 0893845 discloses an IDC device having a biasing element. The blade and the biasing element are separate components made from sheet metal. The biasing element is U-shaped and is disposed at both sides of the blade at a position in which the conductor is received and electrically contacted within the contact slot. The blade has recesses receiving the biasing element to thereby obtain a form-fit connection between the blade and the biasing element. While the IDC device known from EP 0893845, via the biasing element, provides an improved clamping and thereby contact force between the blade and the conductor, connecting the cable requires an increased force to spread the blades for inserting, for example, multiple strands of a connector into the contact slot.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,544 discloses an IDC device with opposing blades and a hollow body portion movable along an extension of the contact slot. The body portion has a press-fitting rod adapted to cooperate with a conductor. The body portion supports blade pressing portions suspended in an internal space of the hollow body portion through springs and contacting upper surfaces of the blade. During the insertion of the conductor into the contact slot, the blades tilt slightly under contact with the blade pressing portions to render the geometry of the contact slot funnel shape, thereby facilitating the insertion of the conductor. After the conductor is received within the slot, the elastic forces of the springs provide a rectangular contact slot and compress the strands of the conductor within the contact slot. This arrangement of the blades is secured by a form-fit between the blades and the blade pressing portions.
The device described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,544 has numerous components and is large, and consequently, is expensive to manufacture. Furthermore, the device does not permit packing of strands of the conductor in the contact slot sufficient for transmitting high currents, such as in electrical connections for solar cables.